BREAKING NEWS

PALM COAST, Fla. - A Flagler County man was arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse and neglect of a child causing great bodily harm, deputies said Thursday.

Deputies said Stanley Wykretowicz, 38, of Palm Coast brought a 2-year-old girl, who was unresponsive and had bruising on her body from head to toe, to the emergency room.

Following an examination, the child was flown to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville where her condition was reported to be severe.

The child was admitted to the hospital, where she remains in critical, but stable condition. Deputies said Wykretowicz is the child’s primary caregiver.

Detectives said when they spoke with Wykretowicz, he told detectives that the girl had fallen in the bathtub on Sunday, hitting her head on the spout and possibly on her bath toys, which caused the bruising on her back and buttocks.

Deputies said he also told detectives that the child had fallen while she was attempting to get out of the bathtub on Monday morning, hitting her abdomen on the side of the tub.

In another incident, Wykretowicz told detectives that he noticed that the child's abdomen appeared to be bloated, so he put his finger down the child's throat in an attempt to make the child vomit.

According to doctors, the 2‐year‐old girl needed abdominal surgery to repair a laceration to the colon, and doctors said she had severe injuries that appeared to be several days old and that those injuries appeared to have been caused by blunt force trauma.

Charges were filed and an arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday afternoon based on the findings of doctors and Child Protective Team investigators, Wykretowicz's statements to detectives as to the cause of the injuries, and that he was the last person with the child.

Wykretowicz is being held at the Flagler County Detention Facility on $150,000 bail.